This week’s theme
There’s a word for it

This week’s words
despotocracy
verbicide
agnotology

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(ag-nuh-TOL-uh-jee)

MEANING:

noun
1. The study of deliberate, culturally produced ignorance or doubt.
2. The deliberate production or cultivation of ignorance or doubt.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek agnosis (not knowing) + -logy (study). Earliest documented use: 1992.

NOTES:

Agnotology deals in phrases like more research is needed, experts disagree, and the jury is still out, long after the verdict is in. In agnotology, ignorance is not bliss, it’s strategy.

The word was coined by linguist Iain Boal at the request of historian Robert N. Proctor. A classic example is cigarette companies funding research designed to cast doubt on the link between smoking and cancer. One biased study is enough to declare that “The science is not yet settled” and keep uncertainty alive.

The same playbook has been used by fossil-fuel companies to delay action on climate change, by anti-vaccine activists, and in many other arenas where doubt is cheaper than proof.

See also, agnoiology (the study of ignorance).

USAGE:

“Both Wall Street and Washington are heavily into agnotology, and by all accounts, no one’s better at it than Lucia.”
Michael M. Thomas; Fixers; Melville House; 2016.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: